CHELSEA striker Nicolas Jackson was cheered as he exited the pitch at Wolves last Sunday to be replaced by Noni Madueke.
But this was not an appreciation of a job well done — rather, a less friendly celebration of the fact he was being removed from the game by his manager, Mauricio Pochettino.
Jackson had scored in the previous game against Sheffield United, his eighth goal since joining Chelsea from Villarreal for £32 million in the summer, but also his only goal in his most recent seven starts, including a goalless outing against Crystal Palace at Staford Bridge on Wednesday.
Jackson has developed a reputation for missing chances, and those missed chances have frustrated fans.
There are parallels with the introduction to life in the Premier League of Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez and, in some ways, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.
Players such as Dominic Solanke of Bournemouth, Callum Wilson and Alexander Isak at Newcastle, and Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins could also be included among them, but Jackson and Nunez are extreme examples of this phenomenon.
It’s not that new, either. Many will recall Andy Cole’s time at Manchester United in the late 1990s, when it was often said that he would always score in a game but needed several chances before doing so.
Leading the line in this era of more intense pressing requires plenty of running off the ball and almost a bull in a china shop approach to attacking play.
Such rumbustious play can appear rough around the edges, and the energy expended off the ball can lead to some sloppy touches and rushed decisions when in possession.
But these players are, in their own way, elite chance creators.
Chance creation is as much about the movement of the recipient as it is about the passing and vision of the creator.
Someone like Haaland barely needs to touch the ball in a game, but his running and off-the-ball movement create situations where Manchester City’s playmakers can open up a defence with one pass.
The same could be said of Nunez and Jackson, but the finish is not there as regularly as it is with Haaland.
After going through a phase of using wide forwards as the attacking focal points, centre-forwards and No 9s are back in fashion, but this type of player who creates chances through intelligent movement combined with power and speed, of which Haaland is the standard-bearer, can be difficult to find.
Liverpool and Chelsea will believe they have found them in Nunez and Jackson, and if even just a few more of these chances can be converted to goals, it could propel a team to success.
The statistics show that Haaland has missed the most “big chances” as defined by Opta, in the Premier League this season with 17.
Nunez is next in line, having missed 15 big chances, followed by Watkins (13) and Jackson (12).
Haaland is widely considered to be the best striker in the world, and was recently voted men’s World Player of the Year for 2023 by World Soccer magazine.
Good players miss a lot of good chances and the best one misses the most, which shows it might be worth persevering with such high-volume chance-getters while working on the other parts of their game in order to fine-tune the finishing and link-up play.
Even without the goals, these players can be useful weapons in a team’s attack.
Instead of dropping deep into midfield, as some forwards in the past decade or so have done (Roberto Firmino at Liverpool being the prime example), this more direct style of striker poses a different problem.
Rather than enticing defenders out of the backline into midfield to make space for wide players, these strikers stretch the play across the pitch, making runs in either channel or simply offering a threat in behind.
This opens up passing lanes for creative players to do their thing, and for wide forwards to find spaces in the area to shoot.
Jackson has shown signs of decent link-up play at Chelsea, and this should improve as the upheaval of recent seasons begins to settle into a recognised style and players find their roles.
After Alan Shearer commented on Match of the Day in October that Jackson was not a natural goalscorer, Pochettino naturally came to his striker’s defence.
“If you watch the game against Liverpool, Dortmund or Luton, in different circumstances he’s a different player,” said the Chelsea manager.
“We have to be fair with our analysis, we need to give time to him. I believe in him.”
Klopp said similar about Nunez during his first season in the league in 2022-23 and now believes his striker has adapted to the requirements of the team in this second year.
“Last year, especially when things did not go particularly well, it was super-important that everything was set up perfectly, and we needed a No 9 who defended the centre perfectly in a way Darwin was not able to do then. Now he can,” Klopp said in November 2023.
“The speed, the finishing skills, the desire he has — when he’s fit he is really fit, so he can go and go again. You just don’t know where he will end up.”
It helps that Liverpool are in a good moment, sitting top of the Premier League, while some of the frustration with Jackson at Chelsea will be down to their overall situation, having missed out on European football and being stuck in midtable.
It is difficult for a player like Jackson to adapt and settle in this situation, as it was at times for Nunez at Liverpool last season, but being in a position to facilitate quality chance creation on such a regular basis is still a big plus.
Without such a player, the chances to score might not be there at all, and with this part of the battle won, Jackson and Chelsea will hope the next win, one where confidence is gained and chances are converted, is just around the corner.
